


Tender

by yuki_onna_sicarius



Series: Reks and Rasler drabbles [7]
Category: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 23:24:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12641430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuki_onna_sicarius/pseuds/yuki_onna_sicarius
Summary: "Ow, that hurts!""It wouldn't hurt if you weren't being an idiot."





	Tender

Rasler hissed as he pressed the damp rag to his skin, which screamed in protest. The foul scent of the green salve in front of him turned his stomach, making him want to barf, and he loathed the idea of soon having to smear it all over his already angry flesh.

He tried to massage his aching muscles, but all that did was make things worse. He groaned in pain and let his hand fall down to his side, leaning against the back of the chair he was sitting in. The old wood creaked, and for a moment, he truly believed it was his chair, but the feeling of soft fingers on his bare skin and gentle lips pressing a tender kiss to his cheek told him it wasn't.

"Need a hand?" The voice was barely over a whisper, and the huskiness of it sent a shiver down the prince's spine. He looked up to see the familiar smirk on his lover's lips, and the familiar twinkle in his eyes.

"I'm afraid to answer," Rasler replied. "The last time you offered to help, you made me suffer more than our hunt did."

Reks chuckled at the memory of himself wrapping the bandages too tight, rubbing the salve on a little too harshly, and even smacking one of Rasler's wounds when the older man had made a comment he didn't like.

"I was angry," Reks defended weakly. "You did the very thing I told you not to do and you almost died because of it." He reached over Rasler and grabbed the salve and bandages, leaning against the table so he could lay Rasler's arm across his lap. "I promise I won't be mean this time."

Rasler wasn't sure he believed that, but he couldn't stop Reks, who was already pulling the dirty cloth away from his untreated wounds. Rasler openly grimaced at the sight of the congealed blood and bruising skin. The wound itself was bigger than he'd initially thought, a gaping hole in the middle of his arm. And he thought the scratches across his chest were bad.

Hesitantly, Reks' fingers ghosted over the wounds. Their shaking was almost unnoticeable, but Rasler could feel it. He reached up a tattered hand, wrapped in its own soiled cloth, and firmly gripped Reks' smaller one in it. The younger man's eyes widened slightly at the contact, snapping back to reality.

"I hope we have enough salve," Reks commented softly and removed Rasler's hand from his own. "There's a lot here to deal with."

Rasler remained silent as he watched his partner dip the rag into the water, but not before he dumped it on the floor and refiled it with a water spell. It was understandable, the water was almost completely red with blood, but did he have to dump it on the floor?

The prince grimaced again when he felt the rag touch his skin, but Reks' touch was softer than his own had been. Reks was always better at tending to wounds than Rasler, the younger man's touch was delicate, having treated many other people before. Rasler was unused to treating wounds.

"Ow, that hurts!" Rasler yelled when Reks began to wash the gash on his arm.

"It wouldn't hurt if you weren't being an idiot," Reks replied, the smirk returning to his lips. "I've been hunting much longer than you have, so I know what I'm talking about."

"That beast was going to kill you," Rasler protested, "I had to jump in its way."

Reks gave him a pointed look, his left eyebrow cocked and his smirk replaced by an unamused frown. "I had a protect spell around me," he said. "You didn't have to do anything."

"You know as well as I do that those spells don't make you invincible," Rasler retorted, standing by his decision. "You would have been hurt, no matter how many protect spells you put around yourself."

Reks put his cleaning cloth down and picked up the brush to slather on the salve. Rasler winced and tried to pull away, but Reks had a firm grip on his wrist. "This is going to hurt if you keep trying to pull away," the younger hunter hissed.

"It's going to hurt even if I don't," Rasler hissed back.

"It's going to hurt regardless."

"Precisely. I may as well try to get out of your grip."

"And what happens if it gets infected? You could lose your arm if it has to be amputated, or worse!"

The look in Reks' eyes was nothing compared to the grip around Rasler's wrist. The slender fingers went almost limp, barely touching the skin beneath them. So focused on them, Rasler didn't notice the tears that had welled up in Reks' eyes until one landed on his hand and he heard a soft whimper leave his lover's lips. He looked up to see more falling down his cheeks and the fear in Reks' eyes.

"Reks-"

"I can't lose you, Rasler." Reks' voice was soft, almost inaudible, and Rasler's heart broke. He reached up and wiped away the tears that he could reach and pulled Reks down to place a kiss to his lips.

"You won't lose me," Rasler promised and leaned back in the chair again, wrapping the fingers of his trapped hand around Reks'. The younger hunter nodded and looked back down at the wound on the older's arm, brushing the salve onto it gingerly. Once he had, he wrapped new bandages around it, pulling it tightly. A sharp inhale of breath was the only sign Rasler gave that he was in pain. It wasn't as bad as last time.

It took nearly ten minutes to dress all the wounds on his arm alone. When it was done, Reks sighed deeply and turned his attention to Rasler's chest. The deep cuts were by far the worst, but Rasler had cleaned them out pretty well. Reks picked up the rag again, wanting to make absolutely sure the wounds were clean. Three cuts ran diagonally down the prince's chest, starting from his left shoulder down to his right hip. When the cold water hit his skin, Rasler let out a long hiss, but made no effort to try and stop Reks.

"These are going to scar pretty badly, aren't they?" Rasler chuckled, trying to ease the tension in the air. He never did well in tense situations that involved Reks.

"They will," Reks agreed, "but that's fine. You know I prefer men with a few scars." The smirk was returning, ever so slowly, and Rasler felt relief wash over him like a waterfall.

"Do you remember that night under the waterfall?" Rasler asked, and smirked triumphantly at the blush that spread across Reks' face. Reks hardly ever got flustered, and the waterfall story was probably the only one that could make his cheeks turn red.

"Of course I do," he spat. "You never let me forget it."

"When I'm better," Rasler purred, pulling Reks closer to him to whisper in his ear, "I'm going to take you back there and do it again."

Reks shivered under his touch. Pictures of their time in the water, at the base of the waterfall, making love with only the light of the stars and moon to see each other, only deepened his blush. It was the most passionate and comfortable Rasler had been with Reks.

"I'll hold you to it," Reks replied, brushing salve onto the wounds mocking him on Rasler's chest. "Until then, you worry about getting better. And learning how to take orders from someone who actually knows how to fight."


End file.
